Conflict Resolution Policy

Introduction

Conflicts between people arise in open source projects constantly and the projects by the
MetaBrainz Foundation are no different. This policy aims to establish a clear and unambiguous
policy for reporting and addressing conflicts in our community. In this policy we aim to
establish a fair practice that balances the need for confidentiality and our desire for
transparency in our operations.

Before you continue to read this policy, we encourage you to review our existing community policies
including our Social Contract,
the Code of Conduct,
and our Privacy Policy. These policies establish the norms and rules for
participation in our projects; these policies apply equally to the contractors of the MetaBrainz
Foundation and any participants in our projects.

This policy divides conflicts into two categories: Public and private. Private conflicts are conflicts
that involve confidential information regarding contributors, contractors or supporters. Any conflict
that does not involve confidential information is considered to be a public conflict. For instance, a
conflict between a contractor and the Executive Director (aka BDFL) that involves contractor pay is
considered a private conflict because pay rates are confidential information. A public conflict in edit
notes between two editors in our community does not involve confidential information and therefore should
be considered a public conflict.

When conflicts arise we aim to disclose as much information as possible about the conflict in a timely
fashion. When conflicts contain confidential matters we will aim to disclose as much information as
possible, while fully respecting the confidentiality of the people involved in the conflict. With any
private conflict we will aim to extract the relevant lessons for the team and community in an effort to
evolve our policies to prevent future conflicts. Should the involved parties disagree whether a conflict
is private or public, the question about the nature of the conflict will be presented for the next higher
level in the chain of command to decide. (e.g. if a community member and the community manager disagree on
a conflict being public or private, the Executive Director shall decide if the conflict is public or private).

Reporting and Response

We aim to not have conflict in our community, but we recognize that in reality conflicts will arise and we
must be prepared to address them in a fair manner. When conflicts arise, we prefer to have community or team
members resolve the conflicts among themselves, using our existing policies as guidelines for resolving the
conflict.

If you do not feel comfortable resolving a conflict on your own, you should feel free to report the conflict to
us. How you address the conflict depends on who is involved in the conflict and your comfort level. Please see
the detailed sections below on how and with whom to address your conflict. We aim to address conflicts as soon
as possible in an effort to prevent them from escalating unnecessarily.

Direct conflict resolution

In direct conflict resolution, the involved parties will attempt to resolve the conflict themselves without
involving any MetaBrainz Foundation team member. You should aim to use direct resolution when the conflict does
not involve the violation of one of our policies or if the conflict is minor.

For instance, if a user uses a rude tone, is disruptive or flagrantly ignores our project guidelines, we suggest
that you use direct conflict resolution to resolve the conflict. Some resources that might give you some suggestions
on how to go about resolving the conflict might be this
conflict resolution primer and how to
have difficult conversations at work.

Informal reporting

You may use informal reporting of a conflict if you aim to communicate a concern or incident without
seeking a corrective outcome. Informal reporting may also be an option if you have not been personally
victimized, but you’ve witnessed a violation of our policies or where you wish to maintain confidentiality
throughout the entire reporting process.

For editing in MusicBrainz you may informally report a user using the “Report this user for bad behavior”
link from the user’s profile. For reporting bad user behavior in other of our projects, please report them to our
community manager by mailing gro.zniarbatem@reganam-ytinummoc . For conflicts
that involve the community manager, report them by mailing gro.zniarbatem@de .

Depending the the severity of the issue, repeated informal complaints may eventually require a formal response
from the MetaBrainz team. If an involved party requires anonymity, the conflict becomes a private conflict. If at
all possible minor issues should be resolved in a public forum in order for all people to witness and learn from
the issue at hand.

Formal complaint process

All complaints about conflicts should be submitted via email. To whom a complaint should be mailed and who will
carry out the investigation will be described in the next section.

All complaint submissions to the Foundation should include the following:

Contact info, if it is different than the email used to submit the conflict

Who was involved in the conflict

Where and when the incident happened

A description of what happened -- ideally with links (e.g. chatlogs, edit notes) that outlines what
happened so that the persons evaluating the conflict may understand the issue at hand.

Any related pieces of information that provide more context on the conflict. (e.g. links, screenshots)

An indication if this conflict is ongoing or not

The investigation that follows aims to determine:

The nature and severity of the incident

Whether or not the incident is considered a violation of MetaBrainz’ conduct policies or core values

The amount of harm experienced by the person who submitted the complaint and the broader MetaBrainz community
as a result of the incident

Whether there have been prior complaints against the individual or individuals reported

Whether the incident is ongoing

The following potential forms of resolution may apply to any team members involved in the conflict:

Nothing (if it has been found no violation occurred)

Creating a plan to improve the performance

Creating a negative performance evaluation

Mediation, an intervention by a third party to resolve the conflict.

Suspension or forced leave

Termination of contract

The following potential forms of resolution may apply to non team members involved in the conflict:

Nothing (if it has been found no violation occurred)

A reprimand, either public or private.

Suspension of the users’ account.

Deletion of the users’ account.

Removal of user privileges (e.g. if an auto editor commits a serious offence, they may lose their auto editor status)

Filing a complaint

NOTE: For complaints not about MetaBrainz staff, please see the Informal reporting section above.

If the complaint does not involve the Executive Director (ED), do the following:

If team member has directly violated conduct policies or engaged in otherwise harmful behavior, a formal complaint should be filed.

Mail gro.zniarbatem@de and include the complaint information outlined above.

You should expect a response within a working day acknowledging the complaint.

The complaint will be investigated by the ED, member(s) of the board of directors or a neutral third party.

Once the investigation has been completed, the ED, with the support of others involved in the investigation will respond. The
ED will respond to incidents no later than 7 working days after a complaint has been filed with either a resolution or an
explanation of why the process must be extended.

If a complaint involves the Executive Director, do the following:

If the Executive Director has directly violated conduct policies or engaged in otherwise harmful behavior,
a formal complaint should be filed with the board of directors.

Mail gro.zniarbatem@noituloser-tcilfnoc and include the complaint information outlined above.

You should get a response within 5 working days acknowledging the complaint.

The complaint will be investigated by the member(s) of the board of directors, the community manager, a neutral
third party or a combination thereof.

Once the investigation has been completed, the board, with the support of others involved in the investigation
will respond. The board will aim to respond to incidents no later than 15 working days after a complaint has been filed
with either a resolution or an explanation of why the process must be extended.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is an important aspect of conflict resolution and all of the conflicts brought to the attention of the foundation
will be evaluated with confidentiality in mind and acted upon accordingly.

We work hard to make all of the actions of the foundation as transparent and open as possible. In cases where we cannot
disclose all aspects of a conflict we will disclose that a conflict is or has occurred and we will attempt to disclose the
appropriate amount of information about the conflict while balancing the need for confidentiality and our desire to learn
from conflicts so that we as a foundation and community can learn from these conflicts and improve our policies to avoid the
conflicts in the future.

Any breaches of confidentiality will be treated as severe breaches of our conduct policies.

Retaliation

We will not allow retaliation for any contractor or volunteer that files a complaint or is involved in an investigation. If you
believe that you are being treated negatively because of your involvement in a complaint please report this complaint directly
to the ED at gro.zniarbatem@de or the board at
gro.zniarbatem@noituloser-tcilfnoc .